14ymedio, Havana, 6 February 2024 — From Santa Clara to Havana, from Havana to Cancun, from Cancun to Miami. The trip of Brandy, a five-year-old Creole dog, was not very different from the one its owners made twelve months ago. But the reunion had a price: tensions, bribes to process the documentation and $3,000 in expenses.
“We left Brandy in Cuba with some friends, and I promised them that it would not take me more than a few months to bring her to the United States. It ended up being a year, but now she’s here with me,” Lorena, a 52-year-old from Santa Clara, tells this newspaper. “We became very fond of her after taking her off the street, and although people think I’m crazy to spend so much money on a pet, I decided to bring her to Miami,” she says.
There are many people who perform this service and charge between 2,100 and 2,800 dollars, depending on the size of the animal and the price of the plane tickets
The procedures were quite cumbersome, says the Cuban. “While I was saving, I was investigating ways to bring the dog. I discovered that there are many people who perform that service and charge between 2,100 and 2,800 dollars depending on the size of the animal and the price of the plane tickets at the time,” explains Lorena. At almost 30 pounds, Brandy is considered medium weight.
By the “legal” way, she resumes, the United States requests the internal and external deworming of the pet and several vaccines, including rabies, which must be given. Then you have to wait a month and take blood from the animal, centrifuge it and send it frozen to a laboratory in Kansas, which is the only one capable of doing that type of analysis. Then you must wait a fe